Thread: Any Barolo Drinkers Here?

JB wrote:
> I did a message search for "Barolo" and turned up nothing?
>
> Anyone like to drink Barolo? I had several bottles of Michele Chiarlo
> 1997. A friend told me that Cellar Tracker says to drink now. I thought
> this wine could hold up longer than this. I last sampled a bottle a
> couple of years back and it still had strong tannins and, I thought,
> would benefit from further aging. I was really looking at letting these
> bottles get beyond 20 years before drinking.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> JB

I drink as much Barolo as I can, but given the price of the wines, I
don't drink as much Barolo as I'd like to ;-) '97 was a low acid year
that, despite the hype it received early on in certain quarters, was
never destined for long life. Add to that the fact that many producers
were at that time toying with aging their wines in new oak, and there
have been persistent questions about the ageworthiness of those wines.
Still, don't take the prognostications on Cellartracker too seriously:
I've had numerous wines that they listed as beyond their "drinking
window" that were still quite alive and good.

Mark Lipton

On May 30, 9:50*pm, Mark Lipton <not...@eudrup.ude> wrote:
> JB wrote:
> > I did a message search for "Barolo" and turned up nothing?
>
> > Anyone like to drink Barolo? I had several bottles of Michele Chiarlo
> > 1997. A friend told me that Cellar Tracker says to drink now. I thought
> > this wine could hold up longer than this. I last sampled a bottle a
> > couple of years back and it still had strong tannins and, I thought,
> > would benefit from further aging. I was really looking at letting these
> > bottles get beyond 20 years before drinking.
>
> > Any thoughts?
>
> > JB
>
> I drink as much Barolo as I can, but given the price of the wines, I
> don't drink as much Barolo as I'd like to ;-) *'97 was a low acid year
> that, despite the hype it received early on in certain quarters, was
> never destined for long life. *Add to that the fact that many producers
> were at that time toying with aging their wines in new oak, and there
> have been persistent questions about the ageworthiness of those wines.
> Still, don't take the prognostications on Cellartracker too seriously:
> I've had numerous wines that they listed as beyond their "drinking
> window" that were still quite alive and good.
>
> Mark Lipton

I'm with Mark here. Barolo is my favorite wine, in fact we had 1989
Conterno Cascina Francia today but it was a friend's bottle. Amazing
wine, rose petals and tar, smooth as silk and still had a lot of years
left in it.

On May 30, 3:43*pm, JB <jrbnos...@ipa.net> wrote:
> I did a message search for "Barolo" and turned up nothing?
>
> Anyone like to drink Barolo? I had several bottles of Michele Chiarlo
> 1997. A friend told me that Cellar Tracker says to drink now. I thought
> this wine could hold up longer than this. I last sampled a bottle a
> couple of years back and it still had strong tannins and, I thought,
> would benefit from further aging. I was really looking at letting these
> bottles get beyond 20 years before drinking.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> JB

I drink a fair amount of Barolo and given the differences in style
from maker to maker (old style versus new style) it can be hard to get
a fix on the aging curve. When properly stored and aged, older Barolo
can be silky yet powerful with multiple layers of aromatics and
flavors. I think that 20 years might be pushing it in low acid years
or in new style wines.

Thanks for the comments guys. I really couldn't see the wine going down
hill so much in the last couple of years. I'm thinking that I'll decant
a bottle and serve it blind the next time my friend is over. He'd read
the info on Cellartracker before he drank his bottle. I think people's
perceptions are definitely influenced this way.

Besides, I serve most of my wines "blind" to our visitors. To me, it's a
better way to judge the wine if no one knows beforehand what they're
drinking. There are definitely surprises when purchase price is an
unknown. The bad news is that I rarely get that experience since I'm the
server.



On 5/31/2011 12:13 AM, lleichtman wrote:
> On May 30, 9:50 pm, Mark Lipton<not...@eudrup.ude> wrote:
>> JB wrote:
>>> I did a message search for "Barolo" and turned up nothing?
>>
>>> Anyone like to drink Barolo? I had several bottles of Michele Chiarlo
>>> 1997. A friend told me that Cellar Tracker says to drink now. I thought
>>> this wine could hold up longer than this. I last sampled a bottle a
>>> couple of years back and it still had strong tannins and, I thought,
>>> would benefit from further aging. I was really looking at letting these
>>> bottles get beyond 20 years before drinking.
>>
>>> Any thoughts?
>>
>>> JB
>>
>> I drink as much Barolo as I can, but given the price of the wines, I
>> don't drink as much Barolo as I'd like to ;-) '97 was a low acid year
>> that, despite the hype it received early on in certain quarters, was
>> never destined for long life. Add to that the fact that many producers
>> were at that time toying with aging their wines in new oak, and there
>> have been persistent questions about the ageworthiness of those wines.
>> Still, don't take the prognostications on Cellartracker too seriously:
>> I've had numerous wines that they listed as beyond their "drinking
>> window" that were still quite alive and good.
>>
>> Mark Lipton
>
> I'm with Mark here. Barolo is my favorite wine, in fact we had 1989
> Conterno Cascina Francia today but it was a friend's bottle. Amazing
> wine, rose petals and tar, smooth as silk and still had a lot of years
> left in it.